To what extent, in the years 1903-1924, did Lenin abandon ideology in order to gain
and consolidate power?
In the years of 1903 to 1924, Lenin surrounded his party organisation, economic and social
policies, and civil war propaganda around Marxist ideology. However, it can be argued that
his consolidation of power was based on pragmatism rather than pure ideology, and that he
had abandoned his ideologies to a certain extent particularly after the civil war with his
policies.
Lenin stuck to his ideologies during the first few years of his consolidation of power with his
organisation of the Bolsheviks in the political arena. His ideology was outlined in his novel,
“What is to be done”, written in 1902, which advocated for centralisation and a small
committee of professional revolutionaries to act as vanguard. This was clearly followed in
1903, which caused the split of the Social Democrats at the second party conference. Lenin
believed a dedicated party could lead a small working class into power, and that only
genuine, totally reliable Marxists & revolutionaries were allowed in. Decisions made after
open debate and vote but all had to abide by the decision completely. This was called
‘democratic centralism’, and as Lenin said, it meant “freedom of discussion, unity of action."
Therefore, Lenin strongly stuck to his ideology when the Bolsheviks first began to gain
power. In addition, they organised workers and supported soviets, but lacked strong
leadership and missed the whole of the 1905 revolution, proving that their ideology was more
important to Lenin than the practicalities to gain support. Lenin also stuck to his ideology in
pursuit of political power in the years 1917-1921, by creating the Sovnarkom and the
Politburo, which kept only key party members at the top. This was because he used the
slogan “All Power to the People”, and he suggested in ‘State and Revolution”, written shortly
before the October revolution that the people would readily see that a Bolshevik government
ruled in their interests and would support it. He spoke of an expansion of democracy, with the
people managing their own affairs and a reduction in state bureaucracy. So it can be argued
that the establishment of a one party state was done out of ideological reasons. Nevertheless,
from February 1921, Lenin authorised the Cheka to destroy opposition political parties, he
introduced the Ban on Factions and the Nomenklatura system, in 1923 which meant the top
jobs only went to party members. This meant that his consolidation of power was done by
crushing the political opposition. Despite this, whether this was the main reason for it or not,
by following his ideology, this gave Lenin a lot of political power.
In 1917, Lenin was determined to seize power, and their ideology appealed to many workers,
peasants and soldiers. This was outlined in his ‘April Theses’, which claimed to give “Peace,
Bread and Land” to the people, which helped them gain popularity and allowed them to seize
power. This promoted definitive Marxist principles while adhering to practical motives. In
October 1917, the Sovnarkom passed the Decree on Land. This gave peasants the right to
take over the estates of the gentry, without compensation, and to decide for themselves the
best way to divide it up. Land could no longer be bought, sold or rented, it belonged to the
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